Largest payout for a single winning ticket in game's history
Update, 12:29 pm: It was a quick pick, plus additional store info where winning ticket was sold.
By Todd Northrop
NEW YORK — A New York lottery official said a winning ticket for the Mega Millions lottery jackpot worth $319 million has been sold at a variety store in Albany, N.Y.
New York Lottery spokeswoman Carolyn Hapeman said the winning jackpot ticket for Friday's drawing was sold at Coulson's News Center, located just a few blocks from the state Capitol.
Hapeman says final sales numbers raised the annuity value of the prize to $319 million, with a cash value of $202.9 million.
The jackpot is the fifth-largest in the game's history, and the ninth-largest lottery jackpot of all time for any game. The biggest jackpot was a Mega Millions jackpot worth $390 million in March 2007.
It ranks as the largest jackpot for a single winning ticket in the game's history, eclipsing the $315 million prize sold in California in November 2005.
The winning ticket was a quick pick selection — random numbers generated by the lottery terminal in the store.
Hapeman says the earliest the winner can claim the prize is Monday, because lottery offices are closed for the weekend.
The winning numbers in Friday's drawing were: 22-24-31-52-54, with a Mega Ball number of 4. The Megaplier was 4.
Employees at Coulson's News Center are bursting with pride, even though they don't know who the winner is yet. They won't get official notification from state lottery officials until Monday, when they indicate what day and time the ticket was sold, clerk Steve Gallucci said.
Gallucci, who clocks 60 hours a week, said there's a good chance he sold the winning ticket.
"I'm happy about it," he said. "I hope whoever wins it uses it in a good way. I gave away a couple of Quick Picks — who knows, maybe I gave away $300 million."
Coulson's is a shop that has been selling newspapers, magazines, sodas and snacks from their Albany's business district storefront for more than 70 years.
"We cater to the business people who work in the offices around here, so we see them every day," said Gallucci, 53, who has worked there since 1974. "They've been coming all week, playing the slips."
Hapeman says the holder of the winning jackpot ticket has the option of taking prize over 25 years or as a cash payout.
In addition to the jackpot winner, 32 lucky players matched the first 5 numbers for a $250,000 prize: 5 from California, 1 from Colorado, 1 from Indiana, 2 from Kentucky, 1 from Maryland, 1 from Massachusetts, 1 from Michigan, 4 from New York, 2 from North Carolina, 4 from Ohio, 1 from Oregon, 2 from Pennsylvania, 1 from South Carolina, 3 from Texas, 2 from Washington, and 1 from West Virginia.
The 5 California winners will each be awarded prizes of $287,323 because California awards all prizes in a pari-mutuel formula, which calculates the prize amount based on the number of tickets sold and the number of winners in each prize category.
Top 25 United States lottery jackpots of all time
After all the proceeds were counted, Friday's Mega Millions jackpot stood as the 9th-largest lottery jackpot of all time in the United States.
- Mega Millions: $390 million, Mar. 6, 2007
- Mega Millions: $380 million, Jan. 5 2011
- Powerball: $365 million, Feb. 18, 2006
- The Big Game: $363 million, May 9, 2000
- Powerball: $340 million, Oct. 19, 2005
- Mega Millions: $336 million, Aug. 28, 2009
- The Big Game: $331 million, Apr. 16, 2002
- Mega Millions: $330 million, Aug. 31, 2007
- Mega Millions: $319 million, Mar. 25, 2011
- Mega Millions: $315 million, Nov. 15, 2005
- Powerball: $314.9 million, Dec. 26, 2002
- Powerball: $314.3 million, Aug. 25, 2007
- Powerball: $295.7 million, Jul. 29, 1998
- Powerball: $295 million, Aug. 25, 2001
- Mega Millions: $294 million, Jul. 2, 2004
- Powerball: $276.3 million, Mar. 15, 2008
- Mega Millions: $275 million, Feb. 22, 2008
- Mega Millions: $270 million, Feb. 28, 2006
- Mega Millions: $266 million, May 4, 2010
- Mega Millions: $265 million, Apr. 18, 2006
- Powerball: $261.6 million, Jun. 2, 2010
- Powerball: $261.3 million, Jul. 9, 2003
- Powerball: $259.9 million, Aug. 19, 2009
- Powerball: $258.5 million, Apr. 21, 2010
- Mega Millions: $258 million, Sep. 16, 2005
Now comes the ultimate question: Was it a Quick Pick?
To the lucky winner of the Mega for 03/25/11 CONGRATULATIONS it is about time it was someone locally.
Nice to have someone in Albany win it.
Ut oh.
Rdgrnr, you better se up a defensive perimeter and out out the claymores.
New York always take my money!!!
Maybe i can win tonights powerball!!!
i'm sure it was ....it always is a QP , well, 9 out of 10 times anyway ........lucky bugger lol
Cha Ching.....quite a payday. Wish it had been me. But I do wish the big winner health and happiness with their fortune.
whoever congratulations.......................
hopeful its just 1 winner and not some lottery group,
with 35% max fed rate and almust 9% added rate of new york state tax , if they take the cash, atfer Max taxes of 43.97% overall its: 113,740,900 cash wired to their bank account
makes the 203 Cash million jackpot look not much, atfer the evil govt gets their greedy hands on their "fair" share, its not fair, its high way robbery
biggest single cash payout ever atfer taxes i would say,
also state of new york, just scored over 18 million in mm money
bloody s even got a few cents form ever player, f you new york , that should be the winners money :P
what shall this lucky beep spend it on, who knows, but it should keep them busy buying things LOL
DO NOT LET MATH FOOL YOU.Someone always win, that is a fact.TOO BAD IT WASN'T YOU OR ME.I AM FEELING SO CRAZY AFTER LOSING SO MUCH.
ONE SINGLE LINE QUICK PICK WON THE WHOLE THING.It does not matter how much the person or group played.They had THE SINGLE LINE QUICK PICK THAT WON IT ALL.
I BET THAT YOU HAVE SOME JOKE ABOUT THIS.
I think me (
) and you (
) should be a team and share the Jackpot if you win.
Whataya think?
Not really a fan of lottery clubs, too many cooks spoil the stew. Hope it was a individual who won it. Congrats to the winner(s) though!
Won $14 last night..........Let's go Powerball!!
Being in Albany, maybe it's a pool with Governor Cuomo and a bunch of his rich, fat-cat friends.
I got a feeling the filthy-rich Senator Schumer and the multi-millionaire Clintons and the billionaire Mayor Bloomberg are in on it too.
Just a hunch.
Power to the People!
yeah, yeah....congrads to the winner ...blah blah blah....i'm S I C K of new york winning -!!!
Tell me all you want about how "theres more players there"....BOO-LONY!!!
Somethings very suspicious here...
...not buying lotto anymore unless i find myself in NY to buy the ticket.
I'm now in detox, as I am always after the hype and excitement of the run up to a huge jackpot. However, CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!! to whomever the winner is. May they enjoy every ounce of goodwill, wisdom, peace and luxury that I dreamed for me and my family.
yeah I told my wife I was retiring from playing Mega after this run, she told me I can't. I know if I did stop playin, the same numbers I play would probably come up next week LOL
I must say it does make you think about it. I brought my ticket at 10:43 last night won $24.00 with the megaplier. Had one numbers and gold ball on two tickets. Oh! well now I can play the PB tonite.
Good luck everybody and CONGRAT!!!!!!!!!! to New York single winner.
The news story was updated with additional info on the winning ticket and the store where it was purchased.
It was a quick pick.
I had a feeling someone from New York Would win this Jackpot.Unfortunately it wasn't me as I only matched numbers 52 and 54.
This mega millions is rigged!there is no odds on machines in New York that keep spitting out winning tickets, the rest of the country add to the pot and sit back as NY takes everybody money!!!
NY got to be the luckiest place on earth!!!
The next Mega Millions jackpot ticket will be sold in NY!!
A Quick Pick won the 319 million then.
Thanks Todd.
And I ain't sayin' nothin' to nobody about nothin'.
Call me Mr Switzerland, I'm neutral on any related issues.
Far be it from me to bring up the claimed stupidity of playing quick picks.
And I would never say: "I wonder if he wishes he had played his own intelligent picks instead?"
Uh-uh, no way. I'm not getting involved in any of the back and forth on that. So don't anybody try to drag me into it.
I'm not getting involved.
Congratulations to the winner, however i live in the south and we don't have a chance in winning the mega millions. After viewing their winning gallery they have had 18 jackpot winners in NY and MI from 2005 up until now. I live in NC and as you can see their has only been one winner here so I'm starting to feel like the lottery is rigg.
That is so true the mega millions jackpot goes off there so frequently.
There have been 24 Mega Millions jackpots won by New York and 2 powerball jackpots won by NY!!! May the odds be with you!!!
as a fellow new yorken and one to believe in conspiracy theories, i can tell you that i honesty DO NOT BELIEVE that the lottery is rigged in any shape or form - i do, however, contend that because new yorkers are more than likely to be wealthier than the rest of the country [1 bedroom apts. start in the $1million mark] they are apt to play HUNDREDS of dollars on a single game - in my office alone, one gent spent $650, another $300, another $809 and a group put in a cool $2,350 .. so, when individuals are spending at LEAST $100 [i played $200] each drawing, i do believe the machine and stats and random calculators would favor and spill out for that area .. or at least that's what i tell myself ... anyway, i play ONLY when usamega alerts me that it's over $100million .. and mama plays big .. think of it as an investment plan .. one day, it'll be your turn to collect, right now, we're feeding someone else's troughs
Very well put!!!
i agree cause i plan on winning the big one next time.. lol... but i think most of the terminals are in ny... there one almost on every corner... has to be close to 500,000 machines in (bx) nyc.. for some reason my area alone to my knowledge has had at least 6 2nd place qp winners...
You said you do not believe the lottery is rigged and then you said it favored that area due to all the big spenders and amount of tickets being sold. Uhm, that would be rigged.
Just saying.........
You know something is up when you know what state won before reading what state won. The game is fishy.
really? do you think that would be rigged? never thought of it that way - my interpretation of rigged would be a pre-determined area to win .. but if more numbers are bought at a certain local, that would just mean favorable outcome more likely to come from that area because of the volume of numbers drawn .. no? *shrugs shoulders*
NY have 24 Mega Millions wins and 2 Powerball wins!! yes the game have a big rotten fish in it that is drinking all the water!!!
I think someone from NY is going to win tonights Powerball!!
No, actually a state that sold less tickets than others but won more consistently would be better evidence of the process being rigged.
The facts and statistics as they are do not lend themselves to foster any reason to suspect any impropriety whatsoever at least as it applies to MM and PB.
wow, wow,wow, What an awesome win. Congrats to the winner.
Those were the only numbers I matched as well.
Had the Megaball been a 34 and not a 4, I could've gotten all the money I spent on the last game back to play the next one. :)
I suppose in your eyes limiting the winners to only those folks who can afford a ticket is rigging too?
Just wait till the State of New York confiscates the taxes !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
welp, put another check mark in the it's totally random column... (and it only takes 1QP ticket to find out).
visiondude's common sense approach on a game that is totally random will still fall on deaf ears (mostly), even with the latest more than obvious
occurance.
still, i must press on, it's my self appointed job description at LP.
because i know it's like an MLM in here, you preach the common sense mantra that it's random, and only 1QP will let you know if you are "meant to" to the THOUSANDS, while attempting to reach the "few" that do have a hold on their emotions, and whom will adjust back into common sense land.
i work for "those people"...
"desperation highway will never take you anywhere good, but good ol common sense always will"
1st visiondude 6:8
It it funny how anytime the jackpot flirts with breaking the record it is all the sudden won. I knew it would be won this time. I still think it is all BS and fixed. I am sure the next one will be won one draw before potentially breaking the record too, just like the last Powerball one was.
in an unpredictable game, you will always have people that are either (a) unhappy with a portion of it, or (b) suspicious of it, because it didn't go how they thought it should, or might.
truth is, it not rolling one more time is more of an indiactor that it isn't fixed.
when you throw the blanket of common sense over that "suspicion", you will come to the conclusion that if any part they wanted to fix.....it would have been "one more roll".
there is no better advertizement than a new world record.
visiondude is naturally curious and suspicious, and lives to qualify "truths" in life.
so far, being blessed with extra amounts of common sense....the lotteries ain't fixed.
if the public sensed they were, you wouldn't have had a $319,000 pot, let alone $319 million.
it's pretty simple math. new york has won "more", simply because more players reside there (percentage-wise).
btw, i won $7 by getting 3 white balls on my 1QP, so all those people who used to call me a "loser" in here, can't anymore.
neener neener.
Just saw on the evening news that said it WAS a group win, 7 state workers! Starting to pop up on other news publications too.
I had a feeling it had to be a group/work win if it was from Albany.
That would've been insane if a jackpot that big had been won by one individual or family.
Here come the lawsuits from people feeling they were entitled to a share.
as for a group winning, god i hope they get lawsuit free, i seen 1 to many lottery changed my lifes groups on tv getting sued by BS claims, the people dont have money in pot for that draw, No jackpot for them, its really simple!
i sure think we could stop all these bullcrap lawsuits by a simple law ,
if you Attack someone in court, and they are found to have done no Wrong, You must pay all their legal costs
loser pays.
if i been wronged, i deserve payback for my time and money spend on my defence
if someone i never wronged, sues me, i should have the right to Hire a team of lawyers costing in the millions, and give the Evil scammers that use court and law As their own personal mafa shake down
people woulld think twice, " let me get this right, if i try to sue him, and i lose, knowing i don't have a case, am just trying to get him to sattle, he can hire lawyers costing in the millions, and atfer he won, i get the bill"
ya, bye bye Fake , caseless lawsuits , must of them would be gone in a matter a month once people Get it thro their thick skulls, no more lawsuits that run the risk of being found out as BS/fake/caseless thefts just trying to rob people
then again, i never plan to wrong anyone ,scam them , or when it comes robbing people so forth, not my style, so i have nonething to fear form such a great idea of justice as loser pays idea
people who rob people in real life as their life style, with pure evil intent to take form others what's not their and call it theirs, i have such hatred for these people
but if someone ever did sue me, and i Knew i was guiltless, and never wronged them, guest what, i don't care what the law says, what the judge says, and what everyone else thinks in the world, am getitng a weapon and killing them, a baseless lawsuit is just a Attack , of a coward, a shake down, nonething but Evil, they wrongly attack you, make you spend your life energy defending your self , god forbid waste your money
i won't be robbed, i fear for the lifes of any humans who dare attack me, this current way humans can mistreat each other, is going to get them killed if they ever try this nonesense on me, i just hope humans change the law before i have to put even one bad person down my self
i tell the court to stick it up their beeps, as i go on a killing spree of all their lawyers and whoever was sueing me, if everyone killed these people with ruthless justice served, the world would be a much better place, as it is , the courts and people who sue and their lawyers are nonething but gangsters of 21 centry, hiding behind "govt" as they try to screw you
lawyers are not guiltless, just like soliders who following orders are not guildless for their war crimes
Thanks everbody i won the jackpot last night and i will help people out.
Best,
Well congratulations, if you're serious.
I can feel a Powerball run coming on guys!
i'm dead serious i just found out today
best,
and you're here? talking to us and not breathing through a paper bag hunched over on nana's lap hyperventilating?
in that case, i'll take you up on your offer .. i'll just send you my address and you can just 'help' me out with $13,000 [pssst, you can write it off as a gift, no taxes]
Please tell me this is not a joke...Congratulations anyway if you're serious!!
Wonderful news and congratulations!
Please "help" me by giving me a quick job as your live-in, personal assistant, paying me a $200,000 first year salary. I can relocate quickly. I don't take up much space, am positive thinking, and I'm motivated.
I'm betting it's a "experiment" to see how many PMs they can get. Or just a troll.
Joining LP just to post that? Really? Come on now.
Wow the lottery really has you fooled lol. Just what they want you think, common sense dictates that type of response. I matched 2 and the other 3 were off by 1 and 2 digits. Megaball was 8 off. I still think it is fixed and will until the day I see proof in front of me.
Oh yeah and "groups" always win the huge ones now it seems, I am seeing patten now. Makes more sense and would be easier to hide by supposedly dividing it all.
I had a feeling someone from here won...congrats!,,.beaudad
Ok, Stop now with New York! New York is greatly populated and has a lotto dealer 2 to 4 on a block at times. Some retail dealers have 2 to 3 lotto machines,
so there is a greater demand of players in New York per mile. A store owner will not survive without having a lotto machine to pay the rent. You wait on long lines to put in your number, sometimes its slow but most times you got to join the line and wait. Therefore the State of New York Lotto Players playes ALOT really ALOT. So a County or State that is not as populated as New York State will win but maybe not as offten as the New Yorkers because of the high plays.
Congradulation to you and your Family!!!!
Remember to get a Trust made to protect your winnings.
So if groups always win the huge ones, what about the lady in Idaho and the guy in Washington that won not too long ago. Then there's the rancher in South Dakota (maybe North Dakota, can't remember which). There's the guy in Missouri that won a big jackpot that was caught on a news camera while the lottery official paid a visit to the store. I remember the Wiccan guy out east that won a nice jackpot also. Just a few examples.
So... question. How would they know any particular draw was a group? I don't recall being asked upon purchasing my tickets if it was an individual or group purchase.
NewYokers NewYorkers, those people play the lottery like they are on prozac. There's a website that publishes the number of sales per MM game per state and NewYork and California always outsell other states.
I dont begrudge them, they risk more so they get rewarded more.
Don't know. But I have been playing the Same set of 5 powerball numbers for 5 years.have yet to hit the big one or even one mill.I know their are numerous number combos out their but I do kinda feel a like their is a bit of slight of hand going on.maybe one day I will hit but that is something to think about.I sometimes wonder if a lot of people from other states get the first 5 numbers (powerplay) on each drawing?I know it doesn't happen a lot hear in my state.
Maybe if Mega or Powerball used RNG's then it could be fixed. How do you think they would fix the machines using balls and having the drawing televised each time?
How can the drawings be fixed? The drawings are live and they use balls. The randomness is right there for you to see. Please tell me how they are rigged.
Yeah, what's up with that? The odds of winning the 2nd place prize are only 3.9 or 5.1 million to 1. After five whole yeras you certainly should have won at least once by now.
hopeful its just 1 winner and not some lottery group,
The way I figure it is that if I don't have the winning numbers, I HOPE THAT WHOEVER has the single winning ticket is a part of a LARGE lottery pool...make the win overall less dramatic. I especially love that Sargentos 100 pool that won that $200 million Powerball jackpot and each only walked away with less than $1 million each!
Somebody said that 7 would be the lucky number...did not roll as one of the 6 numbers but the winning lottery group is 7 members (at least for now......hope they have their records airtight or are just 7 total co-workers....you know how it plays out if pools are formed haphazardly and even just one person feels slighted they weren't included in that particular draw (i.e. out sick, vacation and didn't properly plan to have plays covered, etc)).
Anyway, I am not disappointed I didn't win since I would be just as estatic if my 6 numbers match the next drawing.....it is still more money than I currently have today so I just don't get it when people say, "$12 million (annuity)/$7 million (cash value) is not enough for me to consider playing the lottery." Sure the odds suck, but I am sure most people blow more than $5 bucks per week on things like cigarettes, Starbucks coffee, movie tickets, out-of-network ATM fees, etc. I just make sure to not blow my money on things like that so I can blow it on the lottery...at least that has the potential to return my "blown" money into A WHOLE LOTTA CHA-CHING!!!
Additionally, I no longer get caught up into tracking what the current jackpot level is at since it really doesn't matter unless YOUR SIX NUMBERS all match those drawn. That is when I will really get excited...but just the mere fact that the jackpot is (was) at $312 million or $150 million in the case of Powerball has no bearing on me and my behaviour.